Valtteri Bottas is heading back to Mercedes as their third driver for 2025, marking a dramatic turn in his Formula 1 career after failing to secure a full-time racing seat.
The Finnish driver, who spent the last three years with Sauber (formerly Alfa Romeo), will return to the team where he once partnered Lewis Hamilton from 2017 to 2021.
He’ll be backing up George Russell and rising star Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes garage.
But there’s more to this story than just a career move. Finnish billionaire Antti Aarnio-Wihuri, who played a crucial role in Bottas’ early career, has some pretty strong feelings about his former protégé.
“We got him to Mercedes – he would never have got there without us,” Aarnio-Wihuri told Finnish magazine Urheilulehti.
The billionaire’s company, the Wihuri Group, stopped supporting Bottas once the driver started earning over €1 million. That’s when things got complicated.
“It’s not a problem for me. But I do wonder about someone whose whole career depended on us – he just stopped all contact,” Aarnio-Wihuri said.
The relationship has apparently gone ice cold. Despite running into each other multiple times at events, they haven’t even exchanged hellos.
“We’ve seen each other a lot, but we haven’t greeted each other,” the billionaire explained. “My understanding is that his career is over – in practice. And he’s getting on in years.”
A representative for Bottas had a short but pointed response: “There are always two sides to the story.”
The 34-year-old Finn had hoped to stay with Sauber for 2025, but the team went with Gabriel Bortoleto instead, forcing Bottas to take a step back into a reserve role at his old team.
